Links

🎉 Big News for Iron County History Lovers! 🎉 As we approach the 10th anniversary of A Historical Snapshot of Iron County, Missouri 1857–2017, our membership has voted to make the entire book available online for FREE. Yes—free for everyone to enjoy. This hardbound volume featured over 900 photographs tracing Iron County’s story from its earliest days through 2017. It also included a remarkable section honoring our veterans, with more than 500 veteran photographs, including War of 1812 veteran Elihu Shepherd. Why now? After three highly successful printings, the cost and time required for a fourth run simply aren’t practical. Rather than let this treasured resource fade from reach, our members unanimously agreed at the July 2026 Quarterly Meeting to share it openly with the public. The book spans 416 pages and includes a complete name index for easy searching. A few important notes about the link: • The file is a high resolution PDF over 1 gigabyte in size, so it may take a bit to load depending on your device. • The Iron County Historical Society retains all copyright privileges. By accessing the file, you agree not to use it for any commercial purposes. We are proud to make this piece of Iron County’s heritage available to everyone. Enjoy exploring our shared history.

History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, published by Robert Sidney Douglass in 1912 is similar in its scope and presentation to Goodspeed's book published in 1888. Like Goodspeed's book, you will find a wealth of historical and biographical information. The book can be downloaded for free.

This digitized version of Goodspeed's 1888 book features an index that was added to make the book easier to use. To view the book here, you must create a Family Search account (free). Unfortunately, though indexed, the version on this website is a more difficult to navigate through. It is suggested you use the index from the book here and then go to the digitized version of the book at the Missouri Digital Heritage website (the other link to the book on this list). Also see the other entry for a detailed description of the book.

Goodspeed's history of southeast Missouri : embracing an historical account of the counties of Ste. Genevieve, St. Francois, Perry, Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Madison, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Dunklin, Scott, Mississippi, Stoddard, Butler, Wayne and Iron, and including a department devoted to the preservation of personal, professional and private records. Published in 1888, this book contains historical and biographical information of interest to historians and genealogists alike. The version on this page is easier to navigate through, but is not indexed.

Information compiled on known mining sites in Iron County, Missouri and nearby areas as compiled by the Diggings. This website does not identify the location of all mining sites in the county.

From the Place Names Collection at the State Historical Society of Missouri. The information on this page is part of the Ramsay Place Names File, a collection of Missouri place name origins compiled from 1928-1945. Simply select Iron County from the list of counties provided. The language used to describe groups of people in this collection reflects the time and place the document was created. Since the language is part of this historical document, it remains as originally printed, although it does not reflect the current values or beliefs held by the SHSMO.

A historical overview of the 1.5 billion year-old St. Francois Mountains as provided by the Missouri Department of Conservation.